CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing, a division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is proud to announce the approval of the new regulations for cannabis cultivators in California. Please see the News Release below for more details.

To read the cannabis cultivation regulations now in effect, as well as our Fact Sheets and FAQs on how to become a licensed cannabis farmer in the state of California, visit the CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing website. If you have questions, please contact CalCannabis via email at calcannabis@cdfa.ca.gov or call us toll-free at 1-833-CALGROW (1-833-225-4769). Thank you.

News Release

New Cannabis Regulations Approved by the Office of Administrative Law

Approved Regulations Take Effect Immediately

SACRAMENTO, January 16, 2019 — California’s three state cannabis licensing authorities today announced that the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has officially approved state regulations for cannabis businesses across the supply chain from cultivation to retail. These new regulations take effect immediately.

The previous emergency regulations, adopted by the Bureau of Cannabis Control, California Department of Public Health and California Department of Food and Agriculture in December 2017 and readopted in June 2018, were originally issued through the emergency rulemaking process to meet the legislative mandate to open California’s regulated cannabis market on January 1, 2018. With today’s action, these emergency regulations are no longer in effect.

“These approved regulations are the culmination of more than two years of hard work by California’s cannabis licensing authorities,” Bureau Chief Lori Ajax said. “Public feedback was invaluable in helping us develop clear regulations for cannabis businesses and ensuring public safety.”

Each licensing authority’s final regulations and rulemaking documents have been posted to the California Cannabis Portal and can be viewed by clicking the following link: cannabis.ca.gov/cannabis-regulations.

The three licensing authorities submitted these regulations to OAL on December 3, 2018, which was the start of their 30-working day review process. This review process ended Wednesday.

“In a statement on Monday, Earthworks’ energy program director Bruce Baizel argued that the Colorado Supreme Court “just ruled that Colorado’s public health, safety, and welfare are less important than permitting oil and gas production.”

Anne Lee Foster of Colorado Rising echoed this sentiment, declaring that the court’s ruling—which was enthusiastically celebrated by the state’s fossil fuel lobby—”is hard proof that the law is written against the best interests of the people, and in favor of oil and gas industry profits.”

“An agency that is charged with promoting an industry rather than protecting the public from harm is doomed to catastrophic failure,” Foster said of the COGCC.”

“It is so disappointing for the youth and the people of Colorado to hear the decision from the Colorado Supreme Court today,” said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an 18-year-old plaintiff in the youth-led lawsuit. (Photo: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

In a move green groups and youth climate leaders denounced as a gift to the fossil fuel industry at the expense of public health, the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court decision and ruled that the state’s regulators do not have to consider environmental and health impacts before approving new oil and gas projects.

“We will continue the fight for our Earth and our future, despite the mountains we need to climb and the setbacks that we will overcome. Regardless of the court’s decision in our case, the fight will continue.”
—Emma Bray

“It is so disappointing for the youth and the people of Colorado to hear the decision from the Colorado Supreme Court today,” said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an 18-year-old plaintiff in the youth-led suit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).

“To know that the judges in the highest court of my state believe that the interests of the oil and gas industry come before the public health, safety, and welfare of my fellow Coloradans is shameful,” Martinez added. “But I want you all to know that this fight for climate justice is far from over. My fellow plaintiffs, youth around the world, and I will continue to stand up for our right to a healthy future.”

Emma Bray, a 19-year-old plaintiff from Denver, said in a statement the ruling will not stop the growing youth movement for bold climate solutions.

“Not a single person, company, or corporation can silence the young generation’s voices,” Bray declared. “We will continue the fight for our Earth and our future, despite the mountains we need to climb and the setbacks that we will overcome. Regardless of the court’s decision in our case, the fight will continue.”

Backed by the organization Our Children’s Trust, the youth-led suit is demanding that the COGCC refuse to grant oil and gas development permits “unless the best available science demonstrates, and an independent, third-party organization confirms, that drilling can occur in a manner that does not cumulatively, with other actions, impair Colorado’s atmosphere, water, wildlife, and land resources, does not adversely impact human health, and does not contribute to climate change.”

As Common Dreamsreported at the time, a Colorado court of appeals ruled in 2017 that the COGCC must consider the youth-led demand that new fossil fuel development permits only be issued if the project would not harm public health.

In a statement on Monday, Earthworks’ energy program director Bruce Baizel argued that the Colorado Supreme Court “just ruled that Colorado’s public health, safety, and welfare are less important than permitting oil and gas production.”

Anne Lee Foster of Colorado Rising echoed this sentiment, declaring that the court’s ruling—which was enthusiastically celebrated by the state’s fossil fuel lobby—”is hard proof that the law is written against the best interests of the people, and in favor of oil and gas industry profits.”

“An agency that is charged with promoting an industry rather than protecting the public from harm is doomed to catastrophic failure,” Foster said of the COGCC.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.

Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. Common Dreams is not your normal news site. We don’t survive on clicks. We don’t want advertising dollars. We want the world to be a better place. But we can’t do it alone. It doesn’t work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do.

Court challenges have meant that the rule is in effect in only 22 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. One of Trump’s first actions in office was to tell the EPA chief to repeal or revise the Clean Water Rule.

What You Can Do About It
Comment online when the public comment period starts or email comments to OW-Docket@epa.gov using the Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2018-0149 in the subject line of the message. Mail comments to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center, Office of Water Docket, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20460.
Tell members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee what you think about Andrew Wheeler’s nomination
Scientists think a 45% reduction in nitrate and phosphorus, much of it from fertilizer, running into the Mississippi River is needed to shrink the dead zone, which was the size of Delaware last summer. In 2008, a task force set a goal of reaching that target by 2015 which didn’t happen.
A rule published in 2015 under Obama could have restricted pollution from chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
“For the water in the rivers and lakes in our communities that flow to our drinking water to be clean, the streams and wetlands that feed them need to be clean too,” then-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in 2015.
Court challenges have meant that the rule is in effect in only 22 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. One of Trump’s first actions in office was to tell the EPA chief to repeal or revise the Clean Water Rule.

In 2018 the dead zone flowed east, contributing to toxic algae in Florida that killed fish and shut down beaches from the Alabama-Florida border to the Florida Keys.

We are reaching out to remind you to register for the 15th annual California Water Law Symposium. Space is limited, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot. Please visit our website here to register.

The Symposium is February 2nd, 2019 at 9:00am and the final panel will finish at 3:00pm. There will be a reception that follows from 3:15 – 5:00pm. The event is hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law at 200 McAllister St. San Francisco CA 94102.

Our theme is California Groundwater: SGMA & Beyond. We are very excited to announce that we will have three extraordinary water experts as our Keynote Speakers: Felicia Marcus, Fran Pavley, and Richard Frank.

The panels include:

Building a Strong Foundation: How GSAs are Structured Under SGMA

The Elephant in the Room: Adjudication Under SGMA

Groundwater Contamination: Are We Stuck With It?

Doing the Math – What Does Affordable Clean Water Cost?

New Developments in Tribal Water Rights: Agua Caliente and SGMA

Questions of Common Supply: SGMA Requirements for Interconnected Surface Water and Groundwater

Bureau of Cannabis Control Releases Updated Online License Search System

To All Interested Parties,

The Bureau of Cannabis Control (Bureau) today announced it has released an updated version of its online license search system. Industry stakeholders, licensees, and members of the public may now use the updated search to find information about state-licensed retailers, distributors, testing laboratories, microbusinesses, and temporary cannabis events.

To perform a search in the new interface, click on the following link – http://online.bcc.ca.gov/. Proceed to open the ‘License Search’ tab, select your search criteria, provide a response to the reCAPTCHA, and select the ‘Search’ button.

Users may now search by the following criteria:

License Type

License Number

License Status

Legal Business Name

Business Owner Name

The license search provides premises locations for Bureau licensees by city, county, and zip code. For storefront retailers, the license search system also provides the physical street address of the licensed premises. In addition to these location-based search results, the license search provides the commercial cannabis activities that a microbusiness may conduct.

The Bureau of Cannabis Control is the lead agency in regulating commercial cannabis licenses for medical and adult-use cannabis in California. The Bureau is responsible for licensing retailers, distributors, testing laboratories, microbusinesses, and temporary cannabis events. For more information about our agency, please visit the Bureau’s website. To learn more about California’s three cannabis licensing authorities and the other state agencies contributing to cannabis regulatory efforts, please visit California’s Cannabis Portal.

Those looking to get in touch with the Bureau of Cannabis Control may contact us directly through email at bcc@dca.ca.gov.

We invite the community to an open, fact filled discussion on land use policies. Sonoma County planners are rewriting the General Plan for 2020, still tweaking cannabis regulations, winery event regulations (postponed) and the Local Coastal Plan due this spring. These policies will affect the county for generations to come.
Speakers include Laura Waldbaum, Ernie Carpenter, Rue Furch, Tom Conlon and more. These speakers have decades of experience in our county on land use policies. The event is free.

We’ll cover how to get involved now for optimum input and what we need to watch for. What’s that old expression, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”? Equality and many voices will make our county great. Hope to see you there.

Graton Community Club

8996 Graton Rd Graton, CA.

1pm-3pm

For more info please leave comment on website or Facebook

ERNIE CARPENTER BIO: Fiscal conservative and social liberal.

Ernie Carpenter received his BA from San Francisco State and Master of Social Work at Berkeley in 1969. Ernie has lived in Sonoma County since 1969. He is a psychiatric social worker and an original Social Advocates for Youth staff. Ernie served on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors 1981-1997 representing the West Sonoma County. He is a former Coastal Commissioner, Planning Commissioner, Supervisor and current muckraker. He has an ongoing interest in progressive drug policies and government and currently works as a consultant on environment and government.

RUE FURCH BIO: Rue has worked for years with local farm groups, seeking to protect family farms. She was Project Manager for the Sonoma County Farmlands Group and has worked with the California Association of Family Farmers. She was a leader of the Santa Rosa and Sebastopol Urban Growth Boundary campaigns, which fought to protect agricultural land from city sprawl.Her belief in neighborhood-friendly planning led to involvement in Courtside Village, the first Santa Rosa mixed use development to create a complete community of homes, shops, and parks. She also worked with the Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition, Concerned Citizens for Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County Community Foundation Advisory Committee. She was a moderator of the Marin-Sonoma County Transportation Committee and a member of the Hwy. 101 Corridor Advisory Committee.

Rue has served as a county planning commission for 16 years and has a reputation for doing her homework and asking tough questions. She was appointed by two West County supervisors, and has twice been the Commission’s chairperson. She recently chaired a statewide conference on responsible water use and succeeded in prioritizing water resources in the county’s new general plan. Among her many awards,

Rue was named California Woman of the Year by the state Assembly, 2006 Upstream Swimmer Award by Sonoma County Conservation Action, Environmentalist of the Year by the Sonoma County Conservation Council, County Planning Commissioner of the Year by the California County Planning Commissioners’ Association and received the Agent of Change Award from Concerned Citizens for Santa Rosa.

LAURA WALDBAUM BIO:Laura Waldbaum in an environmental activist. For the past 20 years she has been working to implement changes to County policies and influence land use decisions to protect fish habitat in the Mark West Creek Watershed. She has been involved with litigation opposing several County land use decisions, has served on the County’s “working group” to modify the Vineyard & Orchard Site Development Ordinance and is currently a member of Sonoma County’s Cannabis Advisory Group representing the environment.

Tom Conlon (Sonoma Valley) is an applied anthropologist and an expert in energy-efficiency social marketing. His clients have included Southern Edison, the California Energy Commission, the Electric Power Research Institute, and The World Bank (Jamaica). He is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and Sonoma State University, and has founded several ‘green’ businesses, including one acquired by Autodesk in 2008. A Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Tom represented District 1 on the Sonoma County Climate Action 2020 Stakeholder Advisory Group, and he has served on the boards of other local organizations including the Economic Development Board’s Business Environmental Alliance, the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley, and Transition Sonoma Valley. In the late 1980’s he helped initiate the Organic Market News and Information Service and early drafts of the California Organic Foods Act (1990). Tom provides strategic, technical, and website support to Wine and Water Watch.

We quantified neonicotinoids in 146 feather samples of house sparrows living on organic, integrated-production and conventional farms using UHPLC-MS/MS.

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All samples were positive for neonicotinoids.

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Thiacloprid was the most prevalent (99% of samples) and clothianidin attained the highest levels (up to 131.4 ppb).

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Feathers of birds living on conventional farms showed higher concentrations than in the other farms.

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Our results highlight the extent to which farmland birds are exposed to neonicotinoids, and hence the extent of contamination of our agroecosystems

Abstract

The massive use of neonicotinoid insecticides has been repeatedly incriminated for their impacts to avian populations.

Some studies have reported contamination of granivorous birds by neonicotinoids but very little is known about exposure to neonicotinoids in other bird species.

To fill this lack of knowledge, we trapped house sparrows Passer domesticus, an omnivorous bird whose diet is composed of both grains and insects,

and we collected 617 feathers from individuals living on 47 conventional, integrated-production (IP-Suisse) and organic farms distributed all over the Swiss plateau, the country’s main agricultural area.

We then assessed the concentration of five neonicotinoids in 146 pools of feathers.

We found that all feather samples were contaminated by at least one neonicotinoid at measurable concentration (>LOQ), with thiacloprid accounting for most of the prevalence (99%),

while clothianidin was found at highest concentrations (with averages ranging from 1.68 to 9.2 ppb).

Our large-scale survey highlights how ubiquitous neonicotinoid insecticides have become in agricultural habitats, and reveals generalized exposure of house sparrows, and potentially other species inhabiting farmlands, to neonicotinoids.

“Water should be managed as a common resource, not a profit generator,” said Maude Barlow, Board Chair of Food & Water Watch and former Senior Advisor to the UN on water issues. “The more we learn about various issues affecting the human right to water in the U.S., including millions of residents having their water shut off because they can’t pay their bills, the more there is to be deeply concerned about.”

Advocates Raise U.S. Water Quality, Access and Pollution as a Civil Rights Issue with the UN

WASHINGTON – Today, Food & Water Watch submitted a letter to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights outlining several troubling water issues in the United States as the U.S. government is up for review for its federally-mandated compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The letter notes that equal access to clean drinking water is inherently a civil rights issue, listing several areas where the U.S. has failed to protect the human right to water, particularly as it relates to vulnerable populations and the proliferation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

“Since the UN recognized the human right to water in 2010, things have not become substantially better for people struggling in the U.S. with unsafe water, high bills, or the effects of industrial pollution from fracking and factory farms,” says Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Civil and political rights must encompass the human right to water, which is increasingly under threat by corporations that seek to use and abuse our water supplies for profit.”

“Water should be managed as a common resource, not a profit generator,” said Maude Barlow, Board Chair of Food & Water Watch and former Senior Advisor to the UN on water issues. “The more we learn about various issues affecting the human right to water in the U.S., including millions of residents having their water shut off because they can’t pay their bills, the more there is to be deeply concerned about.”

The letter outlines five areas where the U.S. has failed to meet standards under the ICCPR on water:

Water Privatization and Shutoffs: According to a recent Food & Water Watch survey, an estimated 15 million U.S. residents lost water service due to nonpayment in 2016. Meanwhile, privately-owned utility service costs the typical U.S. household 59% more than public water service. Private water utilities have frequently refused to provide basic metrics including information about water shutoffs for nonpayment.

Environmental Discrimination in Siting of Polluting Facilities: An analysis of all permitted industrial facilities across the U.S. shows that the worst emitters of hazardous pollutants disproportionally expose communities of color and low-income populations to chemical releases. These contaminants can also affect local water supplies. A history of racially discriminatory practices has been documented by the Environmental Protection Agency in the siting of such facilities.

Discrimination Against Native American Communities: Thirteen percent of Native tribal members lack safe drinking water or sewer access in the United States, and nearly 30 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives lived in poverty in 2014—approximately double the nation’s overall poverty rate. Overall, tribal public water systems are twice as likely to violate health-based water quality regulations as non-tribal systems.

Failure to Modernize Water Infrastructure: The U.S. government has been slow to act to initiate modernization of water infrastructure for a world of more powerful droughts, fiercer floods, and rising seas. The rising climate change impacts and failing infrastructure will fall principally upon lower income communities.

Fracking Contamination Threatens Vulnerable Communities: The U.S. government and states have prioritized water use for oil and gas drilling and livestock, resulting in contamination of waterways and groundwater. The threat is particularly acute in low-income and rural areas and will continue to rise as fracking increases.

The letter, co-signed by The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise, and In the Public Interest, recommends several policy approaches that would address these issues. The U.S. should pursue policies that promote local control of water utilities, and Congress should pass the Water Accountability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act, which would provide the needed $35 billion a year to upgrade water infrastructure. It also recommends establishing significant setback provisions for industrial facilities, including concentrated animal feeding operations, preventing construction of such facilities within several thousand meters of residential buildings. Finally, it suggests an outright ban on fracking given the clear risks to our water supplies.

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This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.

Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. Common Dreams is not your normal news site. We don’t survive on clicks. We don’t want advertising dollars. We want the world to be a better place. But we can’t do it alone. It doesn’t work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do.

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

We anticipate meeting significant milestones for the future Southeast Greenway:

Completing the Environmental Impact Report, General Plan Amendment and Rezoning Plan. This process will require review by City departments, a public comment period, public hearings and approval by the City’s Planning Commission and City Council.

Sponsoring a public event and celebration to present the adopted plan and next steps.

Working with Caltrans to appraise the property and begin negotiations for acquisition.

The City of Santa Rosa has begun the next step in the Southeast Greenway’s approval process. Later this month, revised sections of the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Greenway will be released for public review. The main EIR sections that have been revised are the Transportation and Circulation section and the Noise section (transportation related noise). Community members will have the opportunity to comment until early March. The Report will be available on the City’s website at https://srcity.org/2571/Southeast-Greenway or http://planthegreenway.com, for a 45-day period in late January or early February 2019. Specific dates will be provided on the project websites once the Revised Draft EIR is released.

Review of the Revised Draft EIR is tentatively scheduled for a public hearing with the Planning Commission on February 14, 2019, at or after 4:00 pm, in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue. The focus of the public hearing will be on the revised sections of the Draft EIR only. Please join us at this important meeting and wear GREEN. This is our opportunity to show support for the Greenway. Democracy in action!

City Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update

In December the Southeast Greenway Campaign submitted written comments on a draft of the City of Santa Rosa’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update (BPMP). Our comments focused on maintaining consistency between the City’s plan and the pathways shown in the proposed Land Use Concept Plan for the Greenway. (Click here to see our comments.)

The City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board will review all of the public comments received at a public meeting on Thursday, January 17 at 4:00 pm at the Municipal Service Center South, 69 Stony Circle, Conference Room 5. The Planning Commission will consider approval of the Board’s recommendations and the BPMP on Thursday, February 14, and the City Council will then consider adoption of the BPMP on Monday, March 12. We encourage your attendance at these public meetings and will keep you informed on this important process.Sonoma Land Trust, a 501(c)3 public charity, is the fiscal sponsor of the Southeast Greenway Campaign. Contributions to the Southeast Greenway Campaign are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.Friend on Facebook | Forward to a friendSanta Rosa Southeast Greenway Campaign
P.O. Box 9122, Santa Rosa, CA 95405
Email: Info@southeastgreenway.orgVisit the Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway Campaign online at www.southeastgreenway.org

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China, the world’s biggest soybean importer, has bought a record amount of soybeans from Russia while canceling multiple soy shipments from the U.S. in retaliation to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods, reports Bloomberg.

Why it matters: American farmers are heavily dependent on soybean production as a source of revenue. In 2016, soybeans accounted for 12% of exports from the U.S. to China. But that stream is now dissipating with China using subsidies incentivizing their own farmers to cut reliance on U.S. soybeans.

Family farmers are endangered by trade wars as large corporations buy out bankrupt farmers devastating local communities.

Large agribusiness corporations, including foreign companies, lie in wait to buy out familyfarms going bankrupt. Crisis is not a strong enough word to describe the current situation of familyfarms. Waves of consequences. When a small farm goes bankrupt, the entire farming community and all farm-related businesses feel the pain.

Center for Biological Diversity: Rare Earth ringtonesThe eerie warble of the Puerto Rican crested toad — a golden-eyed, pebbly-skinned species that’s Puerto Rico’s only native toad — is the most recent addition to our lineup of wildlife ringtones. Other popular picks are the siren song of the Okinawa dugong — a species fabled to have been mistaken for a mermaid by sailors — and the call of a relatively (and temporarily) pint-sized elephant seal pup as it cries for its mother.
Preview ringtonesDownload ringtones

The Center for Biological Diversity offers you free endangered species ringtones and phone wallpapers — a collection of high-quality, authentic sounds of some of the world’s most threatened birds, owls, frogs, toads and marine mammals.

Whether the cry of the Mexican gray wolf or the underwater warbles of the beluga whale, our ringtones provide a great starting point for talking about the plight of threatened species worldwide. In fact, they’ve been downloaded by about 620,000 people in nearly 180 countries around the globe, including the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Japan, Iran, India, Poland, Germany, France, Brazil, Australia, and the United States. Make a statement with your cell phone and download free endangered species ringtones now.

These MP3 ringtones work with Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. We’ll have M4R ringtones for Apple devices available soon.

SHARE YOUR RARE TONES
Do you have an endangered (or rare) wildlife recording you’d like to share? We’d love to hear it. Send a sound file to center@biologicaldiversity.org or ask us for instructions on mailing a tape or CD.

It has been brought to the attention of Sebastopol Water Information Group that the County may not have properly allied electoral district boundaries with tax districts; for example, an inquiry turned up the information that a precinct just outside Sebastopol has been assigned to a lighting district in Sonoma Valley.

Report of a cursory review found 63 electoral districts with an issue, and a more careful investigation is likely to find many more. The investigator predicts that well over 50 will prove to have a boundary not aligned to the proper tax district. Please ask the now County Clerk/Recorder-Assessor for a careful audit of district boundaries for County Supervisor District 5.

The County needs to make sure that the data has integrity, and the resources to make corrections where needed, so that the citizens will not be voting for representatives or tax measures that do not relate to them.

Journey to the American heartland in this don’t miss documentary about a visionary Nebraska farm family who understood that modern agriculture was ailing, and found a cure. From farmer’s son to soil scientist to missionary and back to farmer, organic pioneer David Vetter has dedicated his life to a “ministry to the soil.” With both historical context and an eye to the future, Dreaming of a Vetter World shows it’s possible to jump off conventional agriculture’s pesticide treadmill. It’s also a story about love, hope and place; an inspiring example of perseverance and doing what you know is right-against all odds.
• Official Site• Trailer• Facebook
With Sonoma County’s childhood cancer rates 3rd in state, this is an important film from people who said YES WE CAN DO THIS! The map below represents the concentration of carcinogens from pesticide use. We must do better.

Putting the brakes on a much-maligned offshore drilling plan has emerged as a self-defeating byproduct of the president’s shutdown over funding for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. While experts largely agree that the shutdown is unlikely to change the Trump administration’s plans to swiftly roll out its planned leasing program in U.S. waters, some say the shutdown has definitely slowed the effort and allowed drilling opponents to gain ground.

“What we know from previous experience with the Obama administration and even administrations before that… is that this process takes a while,” explained Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “We would be expecting a proposed program in about March. But from where we are right now, the shutdown seems to be slowing them down.”

A year ago, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to open up nearly all federal waters to drilling including the entirety of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. An accompanying five-year leasing plan would auction off drilling rights in parts of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from 2019 to 2024.

That plan met with heated controversy almost immediately. All governors on both the East and West Coast announced their opposition regardless of party affiliation with the exception of Maine’s then-Gov. Paul LePage (R).

Sen. Rick Scott (R), then governor of Florida, also sought and was granted an exemption from Zinke, to the consternation of other states like New Jersey; New Jersey has since sued over a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking more information about Florida’s exemption. The state has also introduced its own offshore drilling ban.

For months, the Trump administration plan sailed ahead despite the massive pushback and anger from coastal Democrats and Republicans alike. But the shutdown has hit the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) hard, along with many other U.S. agencies, making it challenging to ascertain the status of the OCS plans.

Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday January 09, 2019
For some time now, the migration of monarch butterflies has been dwindling. Climate change, a weak EPA, and the lack of a real federal oversight program surrounding pesticides are some of the reasons for this problem. Desperation has led many citizens to try to figure out ways to help the endangered population—with mixed results. Los Angeles news station KTLA reports that recent counts of the numbers of monarchs seen migrating along the California coast are terrible.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has petitioned to put the monarch butterfly on the endangered species list, with the hope of obtaining federal protections for the beautiful creatures. According to its website, a decision on the matter is due in June of this year.

You can read more about the plight of the monarch via Daily Kos community member Besame’s posts on the subject here.

NAPAVISION 2050: ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM TAKES DETERMINATION AND PERSISTENCE
Last week, after several years of controversy over Napa County watershed development, Pacific Union College placed 864 acres of forested land into a conservation easement after working with the Napa County Land Trust. As the new PUC President Bob Cushman said in a recent interview, “ ….the forest is an integral part of the education and student life experiences at Pacific Union College. I am very pleased to see this forest preserved and managed in perpetuity.”

This attitude is new and long overdue. The story is long and circuitous. Following the passage of Measure J in 1991, twelve different areas in unincorporated Napa County, referred to as “urban bubbles,” were excluded from the protections afforded from this citizen’s initiative. Eighteen years later, in 2009, the Napa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) changed those “urban bubbles” to be consistent with Measure J, but in Angwin because of a prospective residential subdivision planned on PUC land from developer Triad, this mountain top hamlet was left vulnerable.

Save Rural Angwin (SRA) formed in 2006 as a Political Action Committee focused on protecting the rural character of Angwin. SRA participated in the county’s General Plan update process. SRA also began work to convince PUC that they should be preserving their lands, not selling off to a developer. Little did the members of SRA know that this exhaustive and exhausting fight would go on for a decade.

Over the ensuing years, SRA applied pressure that helped reduce the proposed subdivision from 1,000 homes down to 591 and then down to 380. Eventually the project stalled out as the general economy declined. But in 2009, PUC re-commenced work towards this eco-village. In 2012 SRA learned that PUC had once again entered into an exclusive development contract to build hundreds of homes atop Angwin’s Howell Mountain, despite being told no development plans were underway. SRA used its only alternative – a citizens’ initiative known as Measure U to stop the development plan. Measure U did not win at the ballot box largely due to big money and falsehoods pouring into the campaign. “Unfair, and Unnecessary” were the college’s campaign mantra all- the-while stating untrue facts that they were not engaging in development.

In the last BOS meeting in which Supervisor Keith Caldwell was on the Board, SRA with the assistance of Supervisor Diane Dillon, the “urban bubble” was rezoned to Ag Watershed which crushed any future housing development plans for the college. This was a direct result from the years of proactive work from SRA and the lack of truthfulness from PUC’s then-administration.

Now with a new President of the college, a new attitude of inclusiveness and outreach to SRA who represents the community, the threat is gone. The new administration has gone so far as to thank SRA, formally and informally, for fighting against an ill-thought-out development and for helping foster new open lines of communication with residents.

Because the new attitude from PUC has brought about remarkable changes with faculty, staff and students; and coupled with the work from SRA, many more people have been interested in helping PUC accomplish this wonderful goal of forest preservation. It’s a new day in Angwin, and the persistence and determination over years of service to the community has paid off.

The collaboration of the community and the college is evident in Angwin. Together, management of Howell Mountain’s forests is of the highest priority and initial work is underway to help protect the community from wildfire.

One of the biggest and most important science stories of the past few years will probably also be one of the biggest science stories of the next few years. So this is as good a time as any to get acquainted with the powerful new gene editing technology known as CRISPR.

If you haven’t heard of CRISPR yet, the short explanation goes like this: In the past nine years, scientists have figured out how to exploit a quirk in the immune systems of bacteria to edit genes in other organisms — plants, mice, even humans. With CRISPR, they can now make these edits quickly and cheaply, in days rather than weeks or months. (The technology is often known as CRISPR/Cas9, but we’ll stick with CRISPR, pronounced “crisper.”)

We’re talking about a powerful new tool to control which genes get expressed in plants, animals, and even humans; the ability to delete undesirable traits and, potentially, add desirable traits with more precision than ever before.

A big concern is that while CRISPR is relatively simple and powerful, it isn’t perfect. Scientists have recently learned that the approach to gene editing can inadvertently wipe out and rearrange large swaths of DNA in ways that may imperil human health. That follows recent studies showing that CRISPR-edited cells can inadvertently trigger cancer. That’s why many scientists argue that experiments in humans are premature: The risks and uncertainties around CRISPR modification are extremely high.

On this front, 2018 brought some shocking news: In November, a scientist in China, He Jiankui, reported that he had created the world’s first human babies with CRISPR-edited genes: a pair of twin girls resistant to HIV.

It also created more questions than it answered: Did Jiankui actually pull it off? Does he deserve praise or condemnation? Do we need to pump the brakes on CRISPR research?

While independent researchers have not yet confirmed that Jiankui was successful, there are other CRISPR applications that are close to fruition from new disease therapies to novel tactics for fighting malaria. So here’s a basic guide to what CRISPR is and what it can do.

What the heck is CRISPR, anyway?

If we want to understand CRISPR, we should go back to 1987, when Japanese scientists studying E. coli bacteria first came across some unusual repeating sequences in the organism’s DNA. “The biological significance of these sequences,” they wrote, “is unknown.” Over time, other researchers found similar clusters in the DNA of other bacteria (and archaea). They gave these sequences a name: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats — or CRISPR.

Yet the function of these CRISPR sequences was mostly a mystery until 2007, when food scientists studying the Streptococcus bacteria used to make yogurt showed that these odd clusters actually served a vital function: They’re part of the bacteria’s immune system.

See, bacteria are under constant assault from viruses, so they produce enzymes to fight off viral infections. Whenever a bacterium’s enzymes manage to kill off an invading virus, other little enzymes will come along, scoop up the remains of the virus’s genetic code and cut it into tiny bits. The enzymes then store those fragments in CRISPR spaces in the bacterium’s own genome.

Now comes the clever part: CRISPR spaces act as a rogue’s gallery for viruses, and bacteria use the genetic information stored in these spaces to fend off future attacks. When a new viral infection occurs, the bacteria produce special attack enzymes, known as Cas9, that carry around those stored bits of viral genetic code like a mug shot. When these Cas9 enzymes come across a virus, they see if the virus’s RNA matches what’s in the mug shot. If there’s a match, the Cas9 enzyme starts chopping up the virus’s DNA to neutralize the threat. It looks a little like this:

………….Recently, major companies like Monsanto and DuPont have begun licensing CRISPR technology, hoping to develop valuable new crop varieties. While this technique won’t entirely replace traditional GMO techniques, which can transplant genes from one organism to another, CRISPR is a versatile new tool that can help identify genes associated with desired crop traits much more quickly. It could also allow scientists to insert desired traits into crops more precisely than traditional breeding, which is a much messier way of swapping in genes.
FULL STORY & REFERENCES

Cutting down the earth’s lungs……”Silas Malafaia, an influential televangelist and close friend of Bolsonaro, said developed countries who centuries ago cut down their own forests should pay if they wanted Brazil to preserve the Amazon.
“We’re going to preserve everything because the gringos destroyed what they had?” he said.”
Jair Bolsonaro launches assault on Amazon rainforest protections

Executive order transfers regulation and creation of indigenous reserves to agriculture ministry controlled by agribusiness lobby

Hours after taking office, Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched an assault on environmental and Amazon protections with an executive order transferring the regulation and creation of new indigenous reserves to the agriculture ministry – which is controlled by the powerful agribusiness lobby.
Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration: the day progressive Brazil has dreaded
The move sparked outcry from indigenous leaders, who said it threatened their reserves, which make up about 13% of Brazilian territory, and marked a symbolic concession to farming interests at a time when deforestation is rising again.

“There will be an increase in deforestation and violence against indigenous people,” said Dinaman Tuxá, the executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil (Apib). “Indigenous people are defenders and protectors of the environment.”

Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous leader who stood as vice-presidential candidate for the Socialism and Freedom party (PSOL) tweeted her opposition. “The dismantling has already begun,” she posted on Tuesday.

Previously, demarcation of indigenous reserves was controlled by the indigenous agency Funai, which has been moved from the justice ministry to a new ministry of women, family and human rights controlled by an evangelical pastor.

The decision was included in an executive order which also gave Bolsonaro’s government secretary potentially far-reaching powers over non-governmental organizations working in Brazil.

The temporary decree, which expires unless it is ratified by congress within 120 days, mandates that the office of the government secretary, Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, “supervise, coordinate, monitor and accompany the activities and actions of international organizations and non-governmental organizations in the national territory”.

Bolsonaro, who has often criticised Brazilian and international NGOs who he accuses of “sticking their noses into Brazil”, defended the measure in a tweet on Wednesday. “More than 15% of national territory is demarcated as indigenous land and quilombos. Less than a million people live in these places, isolated from true Brazil, exploited and manipulated by NGOs. Together we will integrate these citizens,” he posted.

Separately, the incoming health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, suggested on Wednesday that there would be spending cuts on healthcare for indigenous people. “We have figures for the general public that are much below what is spent on healthcare for the indigenous,” he said, without providing details.

After she was sworn in on Wednesday, the new agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina Dias, defended the farm sector from accusations it has grown at the expense of the environment, adding that the strength of Brazil’s farmers had generated “unfounded accusations” from unnamed international groups.

Silas Malafaia, an influential televangelist and close friend of Bolsonaro, said developed countries who centuries ago cut down their own forests should pay if they wanted Brazil to preserve the Amazon.
“We’re going to preserve everything because the gringos destroyed what they had?” he said.

Former environment minister Marina Silva tweeted: “Bolsonaro has begun his government in the worst possible way.”

Tuxá, the indigenous leader, said: “We will go through another colonisation process, this is what they want.”

Weedkillers containing glyphosate, a substance that may be linked to cancer, could be banned in city-maintained areas if the City Council sets the process in motion at its upcoming meeting Monday.

The city in 2001 and 2014 already sharply limited the use of glyphosate, a systemic herbicide known more commonly under the brand name Roundup, to kill weeds. Workers only used six gallons in 2017, according to Colleen Ferguson, the city’s public works director.

Ferguson is recommending that the city extend the restriction to all city parks but stop short of a total ban. Presently, there are few places city workers can use glyphosate-based herbicides; for example, the weedkillers aren’t used in the Plaza.

“The Public Works Department and city contractors use products containing glyphosate as a last resort to control weeds on city property,” Ferguson said in her staff report. If it’s used in currently approved areas such as city parks, landscape areas and bike paths, signs are posted with information such as the material applied, with a contact phone number.

Glyphosate was designated “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a unit of the World Health Organization, in 2015.

It’s worth noting that this designation means the evidence that it causes human cancer is “limited” and that explanations including “chance, bias or confounding (meaning an unrelated factor) could not be ruled out,” but that some evidence also exists from animal experiments.

In a conflicting study, glyphosate was “not statistically significantly associated with cancer at any site,” according to a November 2017 analysis based on the Agricultural Health Study, a federally financed cohort study that has monitored 57,000 pesticide users in Iowa and North Carolina since the 1990s.

It’s also worth noting that more than 76,000 pounds of the herbicide in its various forms were applied to wine grapes in 2016 in Sonoma County, according to the state Department of Pesticide Regulation.

“I’m just surprised that it (growth) hasn’t been stronger and faster,” [said] Chris Benziger…

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